People Are Sharing The "Assignment" Their Teacher Once Gave Them That They Still Cannot Stop Thinking About Years Later, And I'm Sorry, But WTF
When you're young, people are constantly telling you that things will make sense when you're older. But sometimes, the older you get, the less sense some memories make, until you realize that some things actually made no sense at all.
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Reddit user u/buttonsarethebomb recently asked, "When you were going through schooling as a minor, what was the most messed up or disturbing assignment you had, and if you can, why do you think it was assigned?" Here are some less-than-fond memories:
1."They split our eighth grade home economics class into boys and girls about halfway through the year. As girls, we learned about motherhood. We each had to take the crying baby doll home for a week. We learned about pregnancy, breastfeeding, and diaper changes. At the end of the class, we had to write a report on why we would be good mothers and wives. The boys? They got an extra period of gym."
2."As a closeted LGBT person, it was always fun when there were debates about same-sex marriage or something like that. You'd get to listen to people debate why you do or don't deserve the same rights as everyone else for an hour."
3."We had a project revolving around trying to change our waist to hip ratios through exercise for six weeks. It was like an anti-obesity campaign thing or something but targeted at a classroom full of teenagers who were already struggling with body image issues. It probably was not that bad, but the way I felt my stomach drop every time I measured myself will never leave me."
4."It didn't seem messed up at that time, but now that I think about it, it angers me. In fifth grade, the female teachers used to call girls only to a hall and tell them about periods. I thought it would be about cramps and how natural periods are, but instead, it was focused on how we should be careful around boys so that they don't know about our 'problems' and how it would embarrass 'them.' A teacher even gave detention to a girl in my class for staining her skirt in front of boys and not remembering her period. The boys enjoyed a free gym period."
5."In our middle school health education class, all the girls had to sign abstinence contracts with our parents and the teacher promising no sex until marriage. This was required and was graded on participation. The teacher even bragged about one girl coming back after her wedding day and telling her that she had upheld the contract. I don't remember if the boys had to. Girls were also the only ones who had to watch the video of a woman giving birth."
6."In middle school, we learned about slavery in the United States. They had tables out in the foyer of the school the length and width of what the cargo would have been on a ship. They had students lay down on their side by side as tight as they could get and then had us stay in there for 30 minutes to get an understanding of how slaves were transported and how horrible it was. I understand the intention behind it. I think it was incredibly fucked up on many levels. But primarily for our Black students who had emotionally unintelligent and racist classmates who were making horrible comments like, 'This isn't so bad.' I talked to a few Black friends after, and they were really upset. I cannot believe teachers thought it was a good idea, honestly."
7."We had to walk down a line with different sexual acts written at different points along the line and stop at 'How far we'd been.' The justification was it was a lesson on purity in a Christian education class."
8."In 9th grade, our English teacher had us writing 'From Santa' response letters to local grade school kids who had written letters to Santa. We were told not to promise any toys and ignore 'impossible requests' like 'Please bring my Daddy home from jail for Christmas' or 'Please make my Mommy better for Christmas.' Both were real requests that we saw. We were graded on participation."
9."In fifth grade, my class tried to help us understand the male-female dynamics of Ancient Greece. Girls got assigned a boy and couldn’t enter the classroom unless escorted by him, had to do his bidding, feed him, etc. We had to act that way for about a week. Shit was weird."
10."This was in college, but I had a sociology professor who gave us an assignment to anonymously post a confession in our class forum. This was a graded assignment, and he encouraged us to take it seriously and confess to anything without worrying about any repercussions as it would be anonymous. The next day in class, we all came to find that the professor forgot to remove our names from our submissions, so everyone in our class started reading all of the posts and knew exactly who wrote them. A lot of the confessions had to do with sexual encounters and crimes committed."
11."We had a project that involved having our BMIs, weight, and body fat % read out loud in health class."
12."One teacher had us write a short story in high school about being a serial killer that gruesomely murders children. It was encouraged that the more violent and gory, the better the grade."
13."We made napalm in third-grade science class. Yep, gasoline and styrofoam. It was just a couple of years after the Vietnam War ended, but can you imagine trying to do this today? I still shake my head."
14."In my Asian Studies class, my teacher assigned us a project where we had to come up with an advertisement for mail-order brides. We could pick fictional characters, or if we were 'brave enough,' we could use our own photos. We'd have to market ourselves and list our best traits. Then, other periods would vote on who would be most likely ordered. I think it was about how you have to sell yourself and what mail-order brides put themselves through, but it was so wrong in so many ways."
15."After reading The Lord of the Flies, we had to write a letter to Piggy’s parents, apologizing for killing him."
16."Our class got split in half, and the two sides were supposed to prepare on who deserved a vote more, Black men, or women. That could be a genuinely conducive conversation if it wasn't presented as an either/or. So, really all that happened was a bunch of kids saying slurs and sexist shit during class without the teacher intervening. Anyways, fuck Black women, I guess?"
17."When I was in ninth grade, we were assigned to write our own eulogies from the perspective of a close one. That still haunts me sometimes."
18."My sex-ed class did the sticky note activity. Everyone got a sticky note and was told to write their name on it. Then, you stuck it to a friend. Then, a new person. You kept going until it wasn't sticky anymore. This was meant to teach us that, the more sexual partners we had, the harder we would find it to 'stick to our partner,' meaning the more sexual partners you had, the more likely you'd be to cheat. This also came with the unsaid warning not to bother with people who had high body counts."
19."In grade school, we had a 911 operator come in for 'Career Day.' He legit played a recording of someone calling 911 because they were being stabbed. They were screaming, and then the screaming stopped..."
20."In fourth grade, we learned a bit about World War II, and the teacher divided us up into groups based on eye color and hair color. Then she was like, 'Congratulations light-haired blue-eyed kids, you get to live. Everyone else dies.' We were 9."
21."My English teacher fed off drama. In previous years, she kept journals that you had to turn in every week, and she'd read, grade, and 'Come see me and let's talk' with anyone who seemed 'troubled.' My elder siblings had her and warned me. She'd been told to knock it off by the time I had her."
22."We were learning about the British colonies and their taxation practices in fourth grade. We had fake money and had to use it for things like borrowing a pencil or going to the bathroom. When I didn’t have 'money' to go to the bathroom, I got put in 'jail' after the town spy ratted me out. I had to physically sit apart from my other classmates for the rest of the week and wasn’t allowed out to the bathroom."
23."In 10th-grade math, my teacher thought it'd be a good idea to have us draw a diagram of the Twin Towers on graph paper and calculate what angel the planes would have had to hit in order for the buildings to fall. He was confused as to why we all got up and went straight to the principal about it. We got a new teacher pretty soon after that, but who does that?"
24."The first thing that comes to mind is when our high school teachers dressed up as people from history and let us ask them questions. Some put on blackface."
25."We were forced to say the N-word when reading Of Mice and Men out loud in class, by my white English teacher. She argued: That's how it was written, so that's what we will read out loud."
26."My fifth-grade teacher used to quiz us math questions out loud in front of everyone. If you were incorrect, she made us run laps during recess time."
